Lessons from the residents of the Momposina Depression in responding to oil spills

Abstract

This article addresses the relationship between Business and Human Rights through the case study of an oil spill that occurred on Mompox Island, Colombia. We reconstructed the information based on fieldwork, interviews with community leaders, and the study of legal documents. Reflecting on this information, and after a brief review of the field of Business and Human Rights, we argue, drawing on authors such as Laura Bernal and Carolina Bejarano, that given the limitations of the international regulatory framework, local communities have developed their own mechanisms of justiciability through bottom-up justice practices, making use of gender-sensitive approaches. In this way, the article illustrates: i) how reparations, beyond merely restoring things to their original state, address basic needs when violations occur in contexts of high vulnerability, poverty, or inequality, ii) the extent to which legal processes fail to draw on relevant sources of International Law to address such violations, and iii) how a gender-sensitive approach, beyond being transformative, must also respect the communities’ own proposals, visions, and initiatives.